1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to internal combustion engines and more specifically to a heat generator for the reduction of emissions from an internal combustion engine.
As a consequence of successively improved efficiency, modern internal combustion engines generate relatively less heat than older types of internal combustion engines. This implies an undesired extension of the time required for the engine, when started, to reach a suitable working temperature, at which the emissions of the engine normally are reduced to a minimum. Consequently, the prolonged heating-up period of the engine leads to an undesired increase of the emissions of the internal combustion engine. The colder the climate in which the vehicle driven by the internal combustion engine is used, of course the longer the prolongation of the heating-up period and the greater the total increase of the emissions.
2. Description of the Background Art
A water-cooled heat generator for the coupe of a vehicle is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,049. This heat generator comprises a shaft which is driven by the vehicle engine and which is the same for the rotor in an alternator and a rotor in the actual heat generator. Alternating current drawn from the stator winding of the alternator is rectified and transferred as magnetising current to the rotor in the heat generator. Moreover, the heat generator has a laminated stator with armature rods which are connected between two short circuiting rings and which, as is the case with the short circuiting rings, are hollow. The armature rods, in which the rotor of the heat generator generates induction currents when rotating, as well as the short circuiting rings, are cooled by means of water that is circulated through the same. The water thus heated is in turn used for heating the vehicle coupe.
This heat generator is bulky, complicated and in addition it has low efficiency and consequently it is of little value as a heat generator for the reduction of emissions from an internal combustion engine.
Another heat generator for motor vehicles is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,184, in which a viscous liquid is heated by means of a rotor driven by the vehicle engine and in its turn heats the cooling liquid of the engine. Also this heat generator based on frictional heat has unsatisfactory efficiency and is necessarily relatively bulky.